Watching the flames dance, Lionel asked Jaelin.
“Why did you do that earlier?”
Lionel turned his head and looked at Jaelin in profile.
Jaelin’s wheat-colored hair caught the bonfire’s light and glowed softly.
“When you first launched that arrow made from the formula, you knew it was far from enough to kill the bear, didn’t you?”
Jaelin quietly nodded. Lionel’s guess was right.
“You also knew the arrow could only divert the bear’s attention, and that the second formula you made couldn’t hold the bear for long—and you did it anyway, didn’t you?”
Lionel’s voice, pressing Jaelin, was stiff and hard.
Lionel no longer had the strength to control his emotions rationally.
“Yes…….”
“Then why did you do it?”
“B-because that was the only thing I could do. I-I’m not strong, and I don’t have much m-mana either…….”
He was angry.
Lionel simply could not understand why Jaelin had tried to save him, even at the risk of her own life.
Anger, spreading like a wildfire, swallowed Lionel whole.
“That’s not what I meant! You could have died. You could have died in my place!”
Lionel poured his emotions out at Jaelin, rough and raw.
Anger leaked from Lionel’s breath.
“You could have just pretended not to see and run away! You couldn’t even do it properly, so why! Why!!”
Lionel’s shout, close to a scream, echoed inside the cave.
“B-but you d-didn’t die.”
“What……?”
“Since you didn’t die, it’s all right.”
Even as Lionel raged, Jaelin only let out a silly, heh-heh laugh.
Seeing that laugh, all the fight drained out of Lionel. It felt as if he had become a fool along with her.
Lionel let out a sigh and covered his face with both hands.
“Do you know you’re a real idiot? You’re so, so foolish it’s infuriating. Don’t do that again. Understand?”
“I-I won’t.”
“Do you want to die?”
“B-but it’s you, Young Master.”
Lionel, taking his hands from his face, stared blankly at Jaelin.
“You were in danger, Young Master, so h-how could I just stand there?”
“…….”
“Oh, right!”
As if something had suddenly occurred to her, Jaelin sprang to her feet.
Jaelin went to the corner of the cave, brought something back, and approached Lionel again.
“H-here…….”
“What is this?”
At Lionel’s question, Jaelin squirmed and shyly averted her gaze.
“H-happy birthday, Young Master. I-it’s a gift I prepared for you.”
What Jaelin held out was a crude doll made by joining several blocks of wood together.
A lopsided circle atop a square body, with arms and legs made from thin twigs.
It was so clumsy that calling it a doll was almost embarrassing.
“This is my gift?”
Jaelin, her face flushed, nodded and fidgeted with her hands.
“I-if you pour mana into it, it m-moves, but I’ve run out of m-mana right now, so…….”
It seemed she had poured every last drop of her mana into the formulas to deal with the bear earlier.
Come to think of it, tiny rune formulas were densely engraved all over the doll’s body, small as sesame seeds.
Lionel gauged the mana within his body. The mana that had been completely depleted while dealing with the bear had recovered a little in the meantime.
Lionel brought his fingertip to the doll. Unlike earlier, when he had struggled to force out the shape of his mana, the formula drew in Lionel’s mana with utter ease.
The doll, infused with Lionel’s mana, creaked and rose to its feet, then swung the stick in its hand up and down.
Suddenly, a crimson ball of fire shot up from the top of the doll’s head.
The dark red fireball that flew into the air burst with a pop, left behind black smoke, and vanished.
“Wh-what is this.”
Lionel stammered in confusion.
“I-I made it using only the things you like, Young Master. You p-practicing the sword, and fireworks…….”
“What? This is fireworks? Pfft.”
Suddenly, laughter burst from Lionel’s mouth.
Jaelin, is this what it means to like someone?
The kind of thing where you can throw away even your own life when I’m in danger, where you can cry as if the world is ending just because I might come to harm.
The kind of thing where you already know what I like without me having to say it, and where you want to do those things for me even if you’re clumsy at it.
The hollow inside Lionel began to fill slowly, starting from the tips of his toes.
It felt as though the hunger that had never been satisfied no matter how much he ate was finally fading.
He was full without eating. Satisfied, Lionel licked his lips.
He naturally used his hand propped on his chin to slightly cover the corners of his mouth.
It was the face of a satiated predator that could not be shown to Jaelin.
Jaelin, you do like me, don’t you? Right?
If this is what it means for you to like me, then you have to like only me for the rest of your life.
Keep only me in your eyes, cry only for me, and smile only for me. Understand?
He wanted to press Jaelin, to badger her fiercely.
But Lionel could not do that. Strangely, he could not ask Jaelin whether it was true that she liked him.
It was a question that had come so easily before, yet now his mouth stuck fast as if glued shut and would not open.
He was afraid. Afraid that Jaelin might say no.
“Jaelin.”
Lionel rolled Jaelin’s name in his mouth in the sweetest, gentlest voice he could produce.
“Y-yes. Young Master.”
Lionel met Jaelin’s eyes with his own and slowly dropped to one knee. His trousers were dirtied, but it did not matter.
Jaelin’s clear, transparent green eyes were filled with Lionel. That fact pleased him beyond measure.
Lionel brushed the hair clinging to Jaelin’s face and tucked it behind her ear.
It felt as if a tingling electric current flowed from his fingertips where they touched Jaelin’s skin.
Only after confirming that Jaelin, her cheeks dyed pink, subtly avoided his gaze did Lionel carefully pull her into his arms.
You do like me. It’s certain.
Even without eating cookies, it was sweet. Not just his tongue—his entire body seemed to be steeped in a sweet sensation.
It was so sweet that one corner of his heart felt as if it were melting.
He still hated sweets, but if it felt like this, it did not seem so bad after all.
Lionel held Jaelin tightly in his arms and rubbed his forehead against her tiny shoulder. He felt the flustered Jaelin squirm within his arms.
“Y-Young Master. A-are you all right?”
“No. I’m not all right. Honestly, I was so scared earlier. I thought I might be bitten to death by the bear.”
“I-it’s all right now.”
He felt Jaelin’s touch as she clumsily patted his back.
“Let’s stay like this a little longer. I was so startled that I think I’ll feel better if we stay like this.”
Jaelin’s small hand kept patting his back.
The touch that had been out of sync with Lionel’s heartbeat gradually locked into rhythm with it and became one.
It suddenly occurred to Lionel that he wished this moment could last forever.
“Hey, Jaelin. Someday, let’s go see the fireworks in the capital together. The fireworks you made for me are nice too, but I mean real fireworks. How about it?”
Lionel spoke as he slowly pulled Jaelin away from his embrace.
He wanted to see Jaelin’s face. That face that would surely accept his suggestion with joy.
Like a small, tender flower bud bursting into bloom, a shy smile suddenly blossomed across Jaelin’s face.
“I-I’d love that.”
“I’m really looking forward to it. The fireworks I’ll see with you.”
The midsummer downpour that seemed as if it would never end had by now gradually subsided.
In the distance, the voices of the servants anxiously calling for Lionel were slowly drawing closer to the cave where the two of them were.
***
Having returned to the mansion, Lionel and Jaelin were bedridden for several days.
Having faced the bear in the pouring rain while wound tight with tension, their bodies, pushed beyond their limits, could not hold up.
As their fevers rose and fell repeatedly, the family physician had to wear out the doorstep of the Eduard mansion coming and going.
The first to regain consciousness was Lionel.
The moment Lionel opened his eyes, he found his father’s face, full of worry.
“Father?”
The Duke of Eduard, who had been sitting by the bed looking over documents, raised his head.
It was Lionel who had been ill, yet somehow his father’s face looked more gaunt.
“Yes. You’re awake, Lionel. How do you feel?”
“I’m fine now. I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“What do you have to be sorry for? It’s my fault for not clearing all the bears from the forest, even knowing you often went there.”
“You knew I went to the forest?”
“Of course I knew. How could I not? It was also because of that that I ordered the bears in the forest dealt with two years ago.”
“I thought you didn’t know. Because you’re always so busy…….”
“No matter how busy I am, I know at least what happens to my son. I know what you do there, too.”
“I’m sorry. I won’t go into the forest again. I’ll stop that useless hobby there as well.”
“Lionel. I’m not trying to blame you. Nor do I think carving is useless.”
“But you don’t trust me, Father. Unless I work harder than now and live up to your expectations…….”
Lionel lowered his gaze to the bedcover and clenched his fist tightly.
“Lionel. Whether you live up to my expectations or not, the fact that you are my proud son does not change. And I have never once thought you unreliable.”
A large hand slowly stroked Lionel’s head.
“I’m sorry, Lionel. I haven’t been paying proper attention to you all this time. But you have grown so well, even under this inadequate father, that you could defeat that enormous bear.”
“Father…….”
“It’s a bit early yet, but the time has come for you to understand why I couldn’t keep my promises to you and left you alone.”
The Duke of Eduard spoke, looking down at the picture frame on the table beside the bed.
In the photograph within the frame, Lionel’s mother, holding young Lionel tightly in her arms, was smiling brightly.
